


Summer Crawfishing

by AristocatSlippers



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-21 23:30:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15568746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AristocatSlippers/pseuds/AristocatSlippers
Summary: Often during the summer,  Shouyou is bored, choosing to pass the time playing volleyball on his own. However, the change of pace when his upperclassman offers to take him to the river to go crawfishing is, perhaps, much nicer





	Summer Crawfishing

**Author's Note:**

> This genfest for all fic is inspired by one of the drama CDs and likely will have more chapters. It was supposed to be longer but executive dysfunction got in the way, unfortunately.

Shoyo tries his best to jump quietly as Natsu tosses their slightly deflated volleyball to him in their backyard, helping him to practice hitting spikes in the early morning. Dawn’s colours are just beginning to fade away, marking the start of a warm, sunny and cloudless day. A probably boring day too, since there's no volleyball practice until the evening - it's a shame that Ukai is busy with shop responsibilities that he can't avoid, Shoyo would have loved to spend his whole day with his teammates. At least he can still practice with Natsu, he hits the ball lightly, working on aiming at the plastic bottles arranged in different places on the ground whilst trying not to be too loud. The two don't want to wake their mother. 

Natsu tosses the ball up for him again, it's a bit high but he still jumps for it. Distracted by a noise somewhere nearby, Shoyo turns his head and misses his spike, his hand falling through empty air. Landing back on the ground, Shoyo peers about the yard, looking to find where the noise is coming from. It's the faint sound of something hitting against glass and possibly a voice. Natsu retrieves the fallen ball and throws it up again. The ball falls down toward the concrete, it hits Shoyo on the head and Natsu starts giggling. He winces, rubbing at the sore spot and hissing out ‘ow’ more than once. 

Turning to Natsu, Shoyo puts a finger to his lips, “Shh,” he whispers to her. 

Natsu’s face fills with glee, she recognises their secret mission and mirrors him, holding a finger to her own lips and shushing Shoyo back. Quietly, Shoyo creeps around the corner with Natsu following, carefully surveying the area for whatever it is. Natsu peeks out behind him, seeing nothing unusual around that side of their house. As they inch closer, the voice becomes slightly more distinct, enough that Shoyo can make out the words they're saying. 

“Shoyo!” someone whisper-shouts, punctuating it with the sound of a stone hitting glass again, “Wake up!”

Nishinoya stands in his yard, dressed in a polo shirt and knee-length shorts but with still wild bed head, with a hand full of pebbles which he throws at a window - except, it's not Shoyo’s window he throws them at, but Shoyo’s Mom's window. Shoyo jumps immediately, tackling Noya and sending them toppling to the ground with a thud and Shoyo’s hand over his mouth to stop him shouting anymore as he sits atop his friend. If he's lucky, she hasn't woken up yet. Noya stares up at him alarmed for a second, a slight look of pain flickering across his features. Shoyo grimaces, he probably made him hit his head.

Shoyo removes his hand, “Noya-san! You'll wake my mom up,” he says, half forgetting to be quiet himself. He moves off of his friend, standing up and lending Noya a hand to help him up.

Nishinoya grins excitedly at him once he’s up, moving towards two random buckets that Shoyo hadn't even noticed before, he glances questioningly at Noya even as he avoids the next ball that Natsu has tossed in the area. Swiftly putting down the buckets, Noya puts his arms together and perfectly receives the slowly falling volleyball, returning it almost effortlessly to Natsu’s hands. She beams at Nishinoya, bouncing up and down enthusiastically and asking him to do it again. He shakes his head, telling her no and turns his attention back to the buckets and Shoyo.

“Shoyo!” He exclaims, “Want to come crawfishing with me? I found a really good spot down by the river. Even the little kids haven’t found it yet!”

Leaping delightedly into the air, Shoyo smiles eagerly, “Really? Noya-san?” He asks, abandoning all attempts to not wake his mother. 

Natsu shushes him in a huff, holding her finger up to her lips again,”Nii-san!“ she accuses. 

Shoyo nods his head apologetically, grabs up his full water bottle and whispers sorry to her. After telling him not to be loud, she turns around and heads back inside their house, Shoyo guesses that she will have gone to watch cartoons. He might as well leave her be if she doesn't want to come along. 

“Really! I'll even buy you an ice cream with three scoops!” Noya declares, holding up three fingers to emphasise his point, “Since I'm your senpai, of course!” He adds, pointing to himself excitedly with his thumb. 

Nishinoya leads the way to the special spot on the river, taking them along a dusty and rarely used path which offers little shade from the sweltering sun. Shoyo sweats under the heat, his shirt sticking to him as they chatter about volleyball during their walk. Noya offers some good tips on receiving serves and powerful hits and Shoyo takes them to heart, he evens learns the secret to catching jump floaters. They're onto the topic of the latest video game that Kenma recommended to Shoyo which he then promptly shared with his teammates, discussing how to beat a difficult level, when they finally arrive at a shallow tributary of the river. It's a steep bank to climb down but Nishinoya does it with ease. 

It is not, in fact, as easy as his upperclassman makes it seem. Clumsily, Shoyo picks his way down with his arms stretched out to his sides to keep his balance. He loses his footing on a stone and slips, falling onto his bottom, Shoyo finds himself rolling down the rest of the bank, falling and splashing into the shallow water of the stream. Nishinoya laughs raucously and offers him a hand up. Shoyo rubs sorely at his behind as he accepts the hand, but at least he is finally, finally cool once again. Before he steps out of the water, Shoyo kicks water up at Nishinoya, spraying him with small droplets. 

Noya defends his face with his arm, “Shoyo,” he laughs, kicking water back at him, “stop that so I can show you the best way to fish for crawfish.”

Shoyo pauses his attack, foot still poised and ready just in case, “Okay then, Noya-san, teach me your ways, senpai.”

Nishinoya beams at him, rolling up his already short sleeves, taking off his shoes and stepping into the water. He crouches down in the middle of the creek, carefully feeling for rocks with his hand, “Okay Shoyo, what you need to do to find crawfish is look under rocks, but do it slowly or you'll get pinched at.”

He carefully picks a rock and slowly lifts it, revealing a little red fish sitting underneath the water. Picking it up behind the pincers, Nishinoya drops the little shellfish into the bucket, offering Shoyo a turn after his demonstration. Doing his best to copy his upperclassman, Shoyo steps back into the water, bending over and looking critically at all the pebbles below the creek’s surface, thoughtfully trying to decide which one might be concealing a crawfish. He picks a roundish, brown and ovular stone, pulling it quickly out of the water. The crawfish underneath scurries away in shock and Shoyo clumsily rushes to grab it before it gets away. Spitefully, the little shellfish attaches itself to Shoyo’s fingers, gripping them painfully.

“Noya-san! Help!” Shoyo yells, flailing around and trying to shake it off his hand and biting back pained tears.

“Shoyo!” Nishinoya shouts, alarmed and leaping over to him. 

He moves swiftly into action and grabs Shoyo’s wrist, holding it still and pinching at the crawfish with his other hand just behind the pincers until it finally releases Shoyo’s fingers. Nishinoya inspects his fingers, checking to see if they’re broken at all, but he assures Shoyo that they’re just bruised - only as badly as they would be if he’d hard-blocked one of Ushiwaka’s spikes. That doesn’t really stop Shoyo from wincing. After a minute, Shoyo begins to laugh. He imagines he must have looked so stupidly funny, Tsukishima would have just sat there filming him and sniggering obnoxiously with Yamaguchi, no doubt. 

Nishinoya starts laughing too, grinning widely in jest, “Let’s not do that again, Shoyo.”

Shoyo, inclined to agree that it wouldn’t be fun a second time around, nods and attempts to catch another fish after his upperclassmen once again demonstrates how to do it correctly. This time, Shoyo manages to catch one without being attacked and he excitedly dumps it into the bucket before trying a third time, then a fourth, and then a fifth. Soon they get into a rhythm of picking up stones and looking for fish sitting there and scurrying around and avoiding getting bitten toes, eventually the first bucket is nearly entirely full by the time they stop for a break at ten am, stomachs growling hungrily.

Nishinoya suggests that its maybe time to get that ice cream he promised, after they eat something for lunch first, that is. It strikes them, eventually, that neither of them brought any food to eat and Nishinoya groans from both hunger and the fact that he probably hasn't brought enough money to buy a decent lunch for the two of them. Do they possible have anything to barbecue their catches with? No, he remembers, they didn't bring that either. They decide to beg from Ukai, trekking to the bottom of the Foot of the Hill Shop with crawfish buckets in hand. 

Ukai scowls, raising an eyebrow and yelling at them to be more responsible the second they walk through the door with no evidence of money and loudly growling stomachs, though he flings sandwiches at them all the same. The two chance it on asking for ice cream, complaining that they'll get heatstroke. In response, Ukai lets out an annoyed noise. Shoyo and Nishinoya push the door open and step out, only to be hit in the back of the head with something hard and cold. Ice cream bars. They pick them up, grin at Ukai and then dash out of the store. Shoyo slams full bodily into someone in the doorway. 

“Dumbass,” A familiar voice yells - it takes Shoyo all of a second to realise that it's Kageyama he's managed to bump into, “Look where you're going!”

“You look where you're going Bakageyama,” Shoyo retorts, the two instantly devolving into bickering which is only stopped when Ukai yells at them once again. 

Kageyama finally notes the presence of Nishinoya and the buckets full of crawfish, asking curiously about them and completely forgetting about the milk he'd come to buy. Shoyo and his upperclassman proudly show off the fruit of their labours, holding up the buckets and inviting their teammate to join them in a challenge to see who can collect the most. Competitive streak flaring, Kageyama makes them wait for him to buy milk before they all race back. He always does an inordinate amount of harsh staring at the milk, Shoyo notes. 

Eventually picking the same milk that he always does - is there even any kind of variety to choose from, Shoyo wonders, it's just milk - Kageyama pays and runs out immediately, earning himself a sly head start. Shoyo and Nishinoya yell, chasing after him and quickly catching up. Kageyama shoves at them, playing dirty and Shoyo shoves him right back. It doesn't occur to Kageyama that he doesn't know where they're running to, but because he starts going down the wrong path. Shoyo and Nishinoya get ahead of him. Kageyama redoubles his efforts, panting for breath and with muscles burning, he thunders down the correct path this time and races ahead of them, only stopping at the banks of the river when Nishinoya yells to him that they’re at the spot.

Kageyama doesn’t slow down quite soon enough, causing him to trip at the top of the bank and go tumbling down. Shoyo laughs, watching as Kageyama faceplants the river and kicks up stones. It serves him right, though Shoyo, despite how funny it is, does feel slightly bad for his setter when he starts yelling in pain as the disturbed and angered crawfish start pinching him. Kageyama flinches and wriggles about with each one that pinches him then jumps up out of the water, dripping wet and with crawfish dangling from his shirt. Shoyo immediately starts pulling them off and dropping them in his bucket, claiming them as his own. Kageyama bats his arms away and berates him, telling Shoyo to stop stealing his crawfish and get his own, it’s a competition and apparently he’s cheating. Shoyo grumbles under his breath, what a great tactic Kageyama has for it.

Grabbing his bucket and placing it on the river bed, Shoyo sits down in the water, it’s cold but refreshing and a nice relief from the heat. He reaches around him for stones, turning them up one by one to find crawfish and employing the technique Nishinoya - who is also looking for crawfish with Kageyama - taught him. Slowly but surely he collects the crawfish, filling his bucket and shuffling along to a new spot whenever the one he was previously sitting in runs out of fish to catch. 

Triumphantly filling his bucket with the last fish that will fit, Shoyo stands up with it in hand and goes to sit on the river bank and dry off. He's absolutely soaked. Whilst letting the breeze blow off all the water, Shoyo leans back and watches the two losers still competing with each other - which isn't really a competition since instead of collecting little red shellfish Nishinoya is trying to reach up and give Kageyama a noogie rub, meanwhile the much, much taller boy just stands there, expressionless and occasionally avoiding his upperclassman when he jumps for it, they really just end up splashing about in the stream. Belatedly, Shoyo wonders what they'll do with all those shellfish. There's no way the three of them could eat that many… Though they could certainly try… Even if it's a guarantee of a stomach ache…  
.  
Unable to sit still any longer, Shoyo jumps up from his spot and wanders down to the edge of the water. He takes note of the bridge a little way down the river, thinking of something to do, “Noya-san, Kageyama!” He calls out, cupping his hands around his mouth, “Do you want to play a game?”

The two pause, looking over curiously, “Sure, what game, Shoyo?” Nishinoya asks him. 

Shoyo bends down and picks up a stick from the the river bank, waving it about just a little in front of him, Shoyo points towards the bridge, “How about pooh sticks?”


End file.
